Angel City Books & Records

Angel City Books & Records has been on Pier Avenue in Santa Monica since 1998, with used and collectible books sharing the floor with vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, and local art. Rocco Ingala corrected one common misconception clearly: there is no coffee on site; the old coffee house was nearby, not inside the shop.

Interview with Angel City Books & Records

How would you correct the common description of Angel City as a book-and-record shop with coffee on site?

Note: there is NO Coffee on site, never has been, never will. There used to be The Novel Café a couple of doors down from us that was a cool coffee house that had some bookcases with old books but we were the “real” bookstore with a curated collection of used and collectible books, vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and local art. Established 1998 is correct. The floor space is pretty much equally divided between the Records and the Books and the sales (income) is also pretty much a 50/50 split. I believe I could not exist as a books-only store; nor as a records-only store—but together it’s a perfect combination, fun to curate and fun to come, browse and shop!

How do books and records share the space?

Today the business is “in store only” i.e. no shipping, no mail order, no internet sales, but the Internet used to be a huge part of the business. In the beginning (1998) the Internet accounted to probably 90% of the sales, all requiring shipping. But every year the competition and finally Amazon pretty much stopped internet sales from being worthwhile. And I got old and shipping books everyday was too much physical work and luckily today the store can sustain my needs with in person shopping. Quite a blessing—to stock and sell the books and music I like and make a living!

Why does the books-and-records combination work for the store?

I see that people love a real, brick and mortar business with books and records that are carefully selected and organized. The emphasis is on Classic Literature, Poetry, Philosophy, Art, Photography and Film Studies with many new releases that are also carefully chosen to be included in the collection. People often say to me “how do you survive? Nobody reads anymore, young people don’t read, etc. etc. But from my perspective reading is alive and well and especially in the younger generation, the ones who come in here and excited and appreciative and eager to browse the book and record collection. I acknowledge that my perspective is probably not the world-at-large but anyone who comes into a used bookstore already knows what they are getting!

Last updated: 2026-08-06